Maryland’s defense keeps handing opponents the same opening, and the last four weeks have turned that flaw into a full-blown problem.
Against No. 5 Ohio State on Saturday, the Terps actually had a little life.
They turned a Buckeyes fumble into three points and cut the margin to 7-3 late in the first quarter. Two snaps later, it was gone.
After Ja’Kobi Jackson picked up three yards, Julian Sayin pulled the ball away and fired to Nate Roberts in the middle of the field. Carlton Smith had already been beaten, and the sophomore tight end raced 68 yards for a touchdown without being touched. That kind of breakdown has become far too familiar for Maryland, which has now watched three straight opponents score at least 40 points.
The numbers tell the story as plainly as the tape does. Maryland has given up 34 chunk plays this season - gains of at least 15 yards - and Ohio State alone piled up seven of them for 243 yards. Four of those explosive plays ended in touchdowns on the way to a 45-16 loss.
“I think the limiting of the explosives, which to me, when they’re the passing variety like they were today, that usually comes with leverage, eye control,” Locksley said postgame.
The issues didn’t start with the skid, either. UConn had already hit the Terps with long passing touchdowns from Kalieb Osbourne to JD Willoughby and Shamar Porter, with Amari Jackson and Jamare Glasker unable to stay with the receivers. Those scores didn’t swing the game, but they were an early warning.
The following week against Virginia Tech, Maryland’s tackling problems showed up in a bigger way. The Hokies logged a season-high eight chunk plays, and the Terps missed 23 tackles, their most in the last year.
That pattern has repeated across the rest of the collapse. Maryland gave up 445 total yards to Ohio State, including 314 passing yards and three touchdowns from Ethan Grunkemeyer, who completed 31 of 39 throws. A lot of that damage came on plays that should have been routine.
One of the clearest examples came at the 9:24 mark of the second quarter. Grunkemeyer dumped it off to Jeffrey Overton Jr. for a simple checkdown, Daniel Wingate closed fast, and his diving attempt fell short. Three more Maryland defenders had a chance to finish the stop and missed too, and the play became a 49-yard touchdown.
“We got to make a play. We had some guys in position, but didn’t come up or didn’t make the play,” Locksley said postgame.
“We got to do a better job, obviously. All of us, whether it’s the tackling, whether it’s us getting off blocks, a lot of those things showed up.”
The problems have been just as severe in the run game. UCLA and Nebraska combined for 13 chunk plays against Maryland, totaling 450 yards and an average of 34.6 yards per play, in a stretch that produced a combined 76-point margin of defeat. Aidan Mizell also broke loose for an 83-yard receiving touchdown for the Bruins, with 74 of those yards coming after the catch.
UCLA’s ground game was especially brutal. The Bruins ran for 266 yards, and Wayne Knight - the Big Ten’s leader in rushing yards per game and touchdowns - went for 100 yards on only 10 carries. His 45-yard touchdown was one of four rushing scores for UCLA, along with short runs by Anthony Woods and Jaivian Thomas and a 63-yard burst from Troy Leigber late.
The run defense has slid even further in Maryland’s last two Big Ten games, with Nebraska and Ohio State both topping 200 rushing yards. Nebraska quarterback Anthony Colandrea also added a 51-yard run in the fourth quarter.
“Just doing our job. Being in the right position, having everybody rally to the ball, and just getting on the ground,” Wingate said of the improvements needed after the Ohio State game. “We had a lot of guys just out of position, and if you’re out of position, a team like Ohio State is going to capitalize on that.”
Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith also punished Maryland’s man coverage, turning his first two catches into 33- and 40-yard touchdowns. He finished with 93 receiving yards, and 89 of them came after the catch.
“When we play man is where we got in trouble today, and we’ve got to be able to get the ball on the ground once it’s caught because they were catching runs and not the deep variety,” Locksley said Saturday.
Maryland enters Saturday’s game against Rutgers allowing a Big Ten-worst 32.7 points per game. The Terps have also given up 718 yards after the catch and missed 85 tackles this season, and the breakdowns in the secondary leave them facing another must-win spot with the same defensive questions still hanging over them.
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The decisive moment came late on fourth-and-3, when Dorian Fleming appeared to come down with what would have been the tying touchdown, only for his left foot to be ruled just out of bounds. It was the kind of finish that made the defeat sting even more, and it pushed Marylands conference skid to 12 in a row, a number that keeps growing while Mike Locksley continues to talk about resilience and fight without being able to point to a win to back it up. [Read more 🡒]